Once again, former chair of grocery and pharmaceutical giant Publix Carol Jenkins Barnett is backing a conservative effort to tamp down a second ballot initiative that would legalize medical marijuana should 60 percent of voters approve.
Last month, she donated $800,000 to the Drug-Free Florida Committee, which is of course opposing the measure. In 2014, she gave $500,000 to the group for a similar effort.
For a litany of reasons, medical marujuana activists aren't having it.
They're protesting outside Publix's Lakeland headquarters (3300 Publix Corporate Pkwy.) from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday.
From a statement emailed to reporters:
"Publix: while you push your pharmaceuticals from every corner of our neighborhoods, yet fund organizations such as Drug Free Florida Committee there are people in need. There are people dying because of your chairwoman’s push of money towards a lobbying giant with backwards ideas. We will not stand by and watch you oppose a step in the right direction."
The amendment, Amendment 2 on the November ballot, likely has a better shot at making it into the Florida Constitution, given that presidential election years tend to see a higher number of younger people and other Democrat-leaning voters at the polls.
In 2014, the amendment was only a couple of points shy of becoming law.
Publix defended Barnett's donation in a statement issued to Time last month, opining that the amendment "would usher in an unprecedented era of legalized marijuana in Florida as opposed to only helping those who suffer from debilitating illnesses.”
Find more info about Saturday's protest here.
This article appears in Aug 4-11, 2016.